Montenegro CIP Rejects All 13 Prospective Due Diligence Providers Over Incorrect Applications

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Montenegro’s Secretariat for Development Projects, which manages the country’s planned CIP, says in a press release that none of the 13 firms (see which below) “complied with the criteria prescribed” and have re-issued the public call for due diligence service providers.

Montenegro’s CIP, which has been in planning for the last two years, suffered another delay today as officials stated that none of the firms that applied to be the “agents for international due diligence assessment” by the February 1st deadline had complied with the stated requirements.

“In the procedure for evaluation of the correctness of the applications, the Commission noted that none of the applications was [sic] correct, that is, none of the applications received complied with the criteria prescribed by the Decision and the Public Call for the selection of agents for evaluation of international eligibility,” reads the statement on the Secretariat’s website.

According to the Secretariat, the following 13 firms had applied:

• “S-RM Intelligence and Risk Consulting Ltd” London
• “Harod Associates Limited” London
• “Ortačko advokatsko društvo Mićunović i Partneri” Podgorica
• “Meirui Fengshun Investment Management Co., Ltd” Beijing, China
• “Teodor Doo” Podgorica
• “Artemon Doo” Podgorica
• “Globalsource Consulting Limited.” Nicosia, Cyprus
• “Honk Kong Delsk Business Co Limited.” China
• “Exiger Canada, Inc” Ottawa, Canada
• “PKF Savvides & Co Limited” Cyprus
• “Wealth-X PTE.LTD.” London
• “Financial Examinations and Evaluations INC” Tempe, Arizona, USA
• “Bishops Services LLC” NY, USA.

Thrown out over a technicality again?

This is not the first time Montenegro rejects all applicants in a public tender; In 2017, after calling upon international government advisory firms to throw their hat in the ring for a chance at becoming the program’s concessionaire (effectively to design and implement the program), both consortia – made up of Henley & Partners, Arton Capital, IPSA, Discus Holdings, Fragomen, and Shanghai Overseas – were told their applications did not conform to the requirements.

Following the blanket rejection in 2017, Montenegro decided to withdraw their tender altogether, and set out to plan their CIP “in-house” instead.

The Commission (for Public Opening and Evaluation of the Correctness of Applications Received upon Public Call of the Secretariat for Development Projects) is currently evaluating applications for accreditation as licensed intermediaries of the program, a public call to which several dozen prospective service providers responded: See the Full List of Firms That Applied for Accreditation in Montenegro CIP

Last week, Montenegro also called on real estate developers to submit their projects for assessment as qualifying property under the CIP: Montenegro Invites Real Estate Developers to Apply For CBI-Approval